Alison Krauss, Forget About It (Rounder Records, 1999)

Honesty time. I really wanted to like this one. After all, I have a soft spot for female singer-songwriters. On the whole, my experiences with them have been pleasant. (Let me rephrase. My experiences with their music. At no time have I been er, associated with female singer-songwriters in any real capacity. Now get your minds out of the gutter, I’m trying to review here!) As a sidenote, Alison Krauss was one of the various musicians to make an appearance on the recently-released soundtrack for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed her contribution to that particular album (“Forget About It,” which also appears in a slightly different version on this likewise-named CD.)

Sadly, despite my attempts to go in with an open mind, I found myself gradually growing bored, and even a little bit frustrated with the songs on Forget About It. Not, mind you, because they’re bad. On the contrary, it’s because they’re good. Just not good enough. Does that make sense? It felt like Krauss was reaching for something and just not quite breaking through the final obstacles. As though she wasn’t quite living up to the potential I could sense. And after a while, the songs all started to sound fairly alike, falling into a certain range, without any one song truly standing out.

Thus, on the whole, I’d have to call this an average effort. Technically competent, and any one song on its own would be quite acceptable. An entire CD managed to grate on my nerves just a little.

But let me point out some of the other aspects of Forget About It before I make my final call. First off, we have Alison Krauss herself, providing lead vocals, occasional harmony vocals, fiddle, and strings where appropriate. Joining her are musicians Ron Block (acoustic guitar), Jerry Douglas (dobro), Barry Bales (acoustic bass, electric bass, harmony vocals), Sam Bush (mandolin), Jim Keltner (drums), and Viktor Krauss (acoustic guitar). That’s not all, but it’s most of the musicians listed as appearing on the majority of the tracks. Working as a unit, they manage to put together a run of rather nice, if not outstanding, songs.

If I had to sum up this album in a word, I’d call it mellow. A second word would be sentimental. It’s a very … nice album. I have no trouble seeing Alison Krauss and her guitar singing at Open Mic Night in a coffeehouse somewhere. However, I’m afraid that as nice an album as it is, I wasn’t impressed by Forget About It. I’m sure it’s to someone’s tastes, but it didn’t quite hit mine. As always, though, you’re the master of your own destiny. Give it a listen before buying, and see if maybe you have better luck.


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